


mother's milk

by crickets



Category: Lost
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-09
Updated: 2010-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-20 04:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crickets/pseuds/crickets





	mother's milk

Dogen remembers feeling alienated -- _angry_.

Even as a child, it had always been there. It was a trait that his father, a soft-spoken, gentle man, could never understand. His mother, on the other hand, was acutely acquainted with the anger he felt, for it was the same as the bitterness that ran through her veins.

Now, he stands at the temple gates, a bag slung over his shoulder filled with useless frivolities that he knows he will soon discard [ _save for one_ ]. And it is here, at this place he's traveled so far to see, that Dogen finally understands the images his mother used to brush upon her canvas and the words she often spoke.

 _Don't ever mistake this, son_ , she would tell him. _Your place is somewhere else._

All his life he's carried with him the only useful thing he'd ever need -- an image of these arches, the tall trees surrounding this jungle fortress, the entrance to what lies beyond it. His mother had painted it, thick and dark, upon her canvas and upon the walls of their home. [ _Over and over again._ ] She'd sketched it on napkins, on blank pages of books, on every sheet of paper until there were none left. She'd even drawn it in the palm of his hand once, and she had never once explained what it meant.

 _Now_ , all of her sketches, her warnings, her premonitions, become perfectly clear.

Dogen draws a breath.

And then another.

 _He takes a step forward._

 _-fin_


End file.
